ATT Nightmare: Very slow speeds with 3mbps dry loop (over 3 months)

[guzzler]

September 2010 I switched from 1.5 mbps dsl with phone to 3mbps dry loop and my nightmare started.  Earlier on 1.5 mbps I was getting 1.3-1.4 mbpsspeeds on speedtest.net and since on 3mbps line it has dropped to 0.6 - 0.8 mbps since october 2010.

ATT is of no help in this matter.  It is so frustrating we cant watch videos anymore, have to wait for photos to appear stripe by stripe..I feel like I am on dial up.

I complained several times, did all the things they asked me to do, nothing helped.  Finally I asked ATT to send a  technician to look at it and he said the line was good for upto 6mbps speeds after repairs, he did something from outside the house (problem was from att side with wire issue) after the speed went up to 1.8 - 2 mbps for 2 days and went back to 0.7.

I created another ticket, this time the technician (Jan 2011) was helpful, he sat for 2 full hours and found out that the problem was with ATT router that my modem connects to (supposedly the router was down, cant believe a router can be down for so long).  Speeds went up to 2.86 mbps and consistently between 2.4 to 2.6 mbps for 15-20 minutes.  right after the technician left the speeds went down to 0.3 - 0.5 mbps!!!!

Right away I called back again to report the issue but the office was closed as it was Friday evening 7 pm.  So I created another ticket and was given a window of 8am to 8pm next day - a Saturday.  I sat at home the entire day waiting for the technician to arrive and nobody showed up!!!

THIS IS JUST ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS!!  I am suffering for past 3 months and ATT cannot solve the problem!!!  I have to take leave from office and sit at home for them and they dont show up??? What kind of professionalis/ customer service is this??  

I am done with ATT....Its really sad after being with att for since 2006 and genuinely trying to make it work (patiently for 3 months) I have to let it go....

[chance metz]

Same problem I have. For the past 6 days the internet has been very slow. The slowdown happens around 5pm and alst until midniht or longer. During the day it is faster but it is still not the speed I am paying for of 3mbs. I am lucky to get 100 kbs. I would be happy just to get half of he speed I am paying for becuase what I am getting is slower then dial up. Jsut goes to show you that a big company like AT&T could care less about their customers and only about the billions they make a year.

[sigmaman]

So many people with the same issue. These forums are full of them. AT&T knows the problem but just doesn't care. Problem is that they are overloading their servers. All they care is about making new customers and making money and existing customers are no concern to them.  

[chance metz]

Time for the FCC to come in and force them to fix this problem and admit that this problem was created by them and not their customers.

[guzzler]

Some good news after looooong few months.

I called one more time and blasted the poor rep as I was ready to disconnect service.  After almost 30 mins on phone he told me that ATT will do some upgrade in my area which will take about 2 days and asked me to check speed after 8 pm one day later.

It has been perfect since.  I am consistently getting 2.4 mbps speed.

This really proves that ATT can upgrade their service/infrastructure to better serve their customers.  I really had to go through lot of pain to make this happen.  

[sigmaman]

Good for you. Atleast someone got the issue fixed but you and the rest of us shouldn't have to go thru so much {word filter evasion} to get this done. They admitted it was an upgrade issue in your area so why can't they admit it for the rest of us suffering with this problem?

[CrashGordon]

It took filing a complaint with the BBB to get them to fix my "slow speeds in the evening" issue. For the past two days it's been fine, but I'll keep checking it to see if it starts happening again.

I agree it's ridiculous to have to take these kinds of actions to get something done about it.

[steltch]

I, just today signed up for ATT 3 mbps service.  I should have been suspicious, "the bait and switch" add I responded to said, "Great for social networking".  Big whoop.  Are there any other industries that can legally sell things that are not what they claim to be.  And what about all the time and energy that goes into grappling with the bad product/service.  There should be quick and easy ways to report and get refunded when we are deliberately misled.  I wish I had done some research before subscribing to what seems like it might be a nightmare.

[sigmaman]

Good luck to you. Hopefully you won't have the nightmares we have had. My suggestion would be to check your speed atleast once a week. Use websites like speedtest.net & speakeasy.net

The issue for most is slow DSL during peak times usually after 5pm. So check it during that time.

[turbines]

AT&T may be legal in their advertised connection speed but their connection throughput is terrible. Support tells you to check it with AT&T Speed Tool and you will usually get a result showing 3 Mbps download.. If you check it with other tools at Broadnand,com or Speakeasy you only get about 600-800 kbps. When I initially signed up with Bellsouth here in Gaineville, Fl I had a 768 kbps connection that actually was faster than the 3 Mbps connection I am supposed to have now. It is not what it appears to be or said to be. {Please keep it courteous}

[Bubbafuzz]

I have the bad connection when it rains problem, but funny you mention the att speed test. The last time I felt like having a constructive time with tech support from att, they had me run the loops of rebooting and all that. They had me go to the att speedtest to see what I was connecting at. At the time, my speedtest.net tests were hitting around 50kbps on a 3M connection. When I ran the att test it was giving my download speed at 6Mbps. I ran it 3 times and told the lady on the phone it was impossible, I live too far away even if they had that speed in my area to achieve it. The upload speed was reporting fine and was the same as what speedtest was giving. But that download speed was woefully incorrect. So they are either trying to pad their speedtest to keep customers from knowing they are being given bad connections or their tools are so bad that they can't even figure out they are having problems lol. Yes I'm a bit jaded....it's raining out again and my connection is down by half. It's useless to call them as they will send a tech out maybe a few days later when it's dry and my speeds will test fine and nothing will be done.  Here's a speedtest from a few days before a tech guy came out and said my line was fine.  Which it was when he came out, it dried up by then.